Randy Boy Junior
Randy Boy Junior (ランディー・ボーイ・ジュニア, randī bōi junia) is a semi-recurring character in Hajime no Ippo. He is a featherweight professional boxer from the Philippines and the son of Raccoon Boy, the man who defeated Miyata's father and ended both their careers prematurely. Like Miyata Ichirō, he has the exact same style as his father and as such their match was considered fate. He was the main antagonist for Miyata Ichirō in the Survival Match of Asian Champions Saga. Randy is currently the strongest Filipino character so far in the series. Background Randy Boy Junior is a Featherweight professional boxer and the son of Raccoon Boy, the man who defeated Miyata's father and ended both their careers prematurely. Like Miyata Ichirō, he has the same style as his father. He holds a victory over the former Filipino Featherweight Champion and fellow countryman, Malcolm Gedo, who shattered his dreams of reaching the world stage from being defeated. History Part II Inescapable Destiny Arc Randy attended Miyata Ichirō's match OPBF title defence against Che Jounbong with Mr. Sakaguchi. He watched Miyata struggled in it after he became distract after spotting him in the crowd, and break his fists but still able to pull threw. Randy went to Miyata's locker room to met Miyata after the match. As Miyata left the waiting room, and met Randy Boy Junior out in the hall. Randy Boy Junior told Miyata, "We were destined to meet..." Miyata asked (in English) who Randy Boy Jr was, but he didn't answer. Instead he thrown a punch toward Miyata but missed, and told him that "Did I not say this was a fated meeting? And no one can fight against fate. You and I were meant to fight!" Miyata Senior came out and wondered what was going on, and Randy Boy Junior started to leave, and mentioned, "A father-son team, is it..? So it is fated after all. Do not forget, Ichiro Miyata, you cannot escape from your destiny." Miyata still didn't know who he was, but he realized he is not the typical cannon fodder. RBJ met Mr Sakaguchi outside and mentioned Miyata turned him down, but Mr Sakaguchi told him not to worry, he will get that match for him. RBJ mentioned if Miyata's fists weren't broken, he wondered what would have happened. After he heard that, Mr. Sakaguchi known how to arranged their match now. Due Miyata's broken fists, an interim OPBF Featherweight was created during Miyata's absents between #2 Randy Boy Junior and #3 Banai Jakkuim, since Makunouchi Ippo (#1 in OPBF) refused to take part. Randy Boy defeated Banai Jakkuim, and was declared interim OPBF Champion. A OPBF Title Featherweight Unification Match was then decided with Miyata Ichirō. Red Lightning Arc After defeating all the boxers at Otowa Boxing Gym, Randy Boy Junior was having a hard time finding training partners. Mr. Sakaguchi mentioned that they should had gone to Mexico instead of training in Japan. When Mari asked why he didn't, Otowa Coach told them it was because he was too cheap. Mr Sakaguchi wondered if there was any other gyms they could call, that had a fast fighter (to prepare for Miyata, and to show off.) Otowa Coach doesn't think so when they heard about Randy Boy Junior destroying boxers. In order to find someone to eat his words, they begun to think of potential opponents for him. Mari thought of Itagaki. After he heard about it, Itagaki wanted to fight, but Yagi and Shinoda don't know if it would be a good idea since the Coach Kamogawa was gone, and Randy Boy Junior had destroyed a few boxers already. Itagaki mentioned since he wasn't able to spar with Ippo, he wanted to find someone strong. Itagaki, Shinoda, Yagi, and Ippo headed over there to spar. Randy was aiming to defeat Ricardo Martinez to become World Champion. It is revealed before his fight with Ichiro Miyata that his father died after his world title bout. He suspects it was because he sustained brain damage after the fight with Miyata's father. Randy was beaten by Miyata after what was undoubtedly Miyata's most intense fight up until that point. This angered his manager, Mr. Sakaguchi, into nullifying their contract. Without even paying attention to his manager, Randy accepted the outcome of his fate against Miyata and then decided together with his team to go home back to the Philippines. Match History Spars *VS Itagaki Manabu 2R KO '''Win '''2m40s Appearance Randy is a tall man with tan colored skin. He is well built with a strong and muscular body. He has intimidating sharp eyes and thick eyebrows. He also has a short neatly trimmed mustache on his upper lips and spiky black long hair. Personality Randy is an arrogant boxer who considers himself much better than his opponents. He is also shown to be quite level-headed, not holding a grudge over Miyata's father killing his own. But when he is losing in a fight, he can become extremely furious in contrast to his normal demeanor. He becomes even more dangerous, with his normal aloof face changing into one of pure rage. Boxing Abilities Randy Boy Jr. is a strong and ambidextrous boxer, just like his father, which enables him to be a "Switch Hitter": a boxer who is capable of freely switching stance from orthodox to southpaw and vice versa. His style has given him the ring name "Asura" because of his ability to "go" and "see" anywhere in the ring. His switching is said to be the perfect match-up against counter-punchers, and out-boxers in general, because it disrupts their rhythm and timing. This was shown in his past fights and his spar with Itagaki Manabu (who had already awakened his latent potential). He has power and endurance supposedly on par with Makunouchi Ippo, and is also surprisingly fast. Randy is also good at using head slips and parrying punches. His usual pattern is to allow his opponent to get into rhythm (though this means he may have to take some hits) then disrupt it by switching stances. Using this, he eventually catches them. If he traps his opponents in the corner, he will face them directly with his hands up on both sides of his face. From there he switches between orthodox and southpaw depending on where his opponents move. Techniques *Switch Hitter *Body Blow *Headslip Weaknesses Randy tends to take a lot of hits despite his speed and endurance. His signature strategy may not be as effective against in-fighters like Sendo or Ippo, since the punishment he would have to take from them may be too severe to allow him to mount a counterattack. Moreover, switching stances has little effect on in-fighters. Randy is ambidextrous, but when he becomes off-balance he instinctively throws his left. Miyata exploited this habit to land his first major counter of the match. Gallery Manga Scenes= RBJ hitting on Miyata.png Ippo - RBJ - Spar - 01.png Ippo - RBJ - Spar - 03.png Ippo - RBJ - Spar - 04.png Ippo - RBJ - Spar - 05.png Ippo - RBJ - Spar - 06.png RBJ - 001.png RBJ - 003.png RBJ - 004.png Trivia *Randy shares similarities with a real-life Filipino professional boxer, the five-division world champion Nonito Donaire, who is a switch-hitter known as "The Filipino Flash". Donaire was regarded by the BWAA as the fighter of the year for 2012. Donaire is known for his power, speed and aggressive fighting style, as well as great technical skills and a good counter punching skills. They're also physically similar, although Donaire has a lighter skin tone and a less serious look on his face. Donaire is also known to be a fan of Hajime No Ippo, and has personally met the author of Hajime No Ippo *The face of Randy Boy Junior is same as the late action star Rudy Fernandez. References Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Characters from the Philippines Category:Boxers Category:Active boxers Category:Hybrid Boxers Category:Unorthodox Boxers Category:Featherweights Category:Southpaws Category:Champions Category:OPBF Champions Category:OPBF Featherweight Champion